On Writing: The Doubt Thing

Lately, I’ve been really waking up to something very clear, and that’s that I am, indeed, going to finish NANTUCKET. And I’m going to finish other books, too. After years and years of always starting but never seeming to be able to actually finish, this knowing that I will finish is a very different feeling. A much nicer feeling, definitely. But still, a little scary.

The daily writing has made a difference to me. I know now that I’ll actually be seeing a first draft soon (at the rate I’m going, and if I can keep this up over my holidays, it will happen by the end of July!). That I’ll be revising. And working on a first draft of another novel. And then another. I’m going to just keep on going, keep on writing.

The daily writing has made the sitting-down-to-write part of things easy. It’s just what I do. I seem to have a large self-filling bottle of bum glue now.

Writing is such hard work. Just keep your eyes on the prize. Sometimes I feel like something is being ripped out of me. Don’t worry about whether it’s good or bad yet.
.-= Nicole´s last blog ..Recommend In Haste & Repent At Leisure? =-.

If your blog is anything to go by, I’m sure the writing itself is wonderful! And even if the plot doesn’t quite work, just remember that this is a first draft. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You’re free to go back and shift things around until you’ve got the book you want.
.-= Memory´s last blog ..97. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak =-.

Fran, it’s so true about getting back into the writing, isn’t it? These days, I can’t quite understand how I stayed away from writing fiction for so long. It’s just there now, this knowledge that I’m going to be setting aside some time to write that day. And the rest of the day, different scenes float into my mind, or things I’ll need to edit, so it’s like I’m always writing, no matter what.

Nicole, that’s such good advice. I don’t often feel that doubt. Most of the time I’m just so busy getting the story down. But when it comes up, it definitely doesn’t feel very good!

Ann-Kat, well, you have read some of my partial starts in the past, so I’m glad you feel my writing is good! I will definitely be pressing forward. I feel less doubtful today already!

Memory, that is so sweet of you! Thank you! And you’re right. First drafts aren’t perfect, and that’s the good thing. I can rework it until I’ve got the book I want.

I certainly want my friends to admire every word I write and flatter me all the way – but I KNOW that editors don´t work that way. Most of them are polite, some are even kind and offer constructive advice even when they have to reject your manustript, and a few are downright rude.

That is why my writing course has been so useful. Most people have been really kind and positive, but they have asked a lot of questions, wanting me to write clearer, better, explain something etc. I believe I have learned something during that process – but let´s see.
.-= Dorte H´s last blog ..Just a teaser … =-.

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I'm a writer, avid reader, artist-at-heart & book indexer. I blog about writing, books, art, creativity, spirituality, & the power of the imagination. Oh, and I like to write stuff about life in general, too!

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." - Stephen King

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The purpose of being a serious writer is not to express oneself, and it is not to make something beautiful, though one might do those things anyway. Those things are beside the point. The purpose of being a serious writer is to keep people from despair. If you keep that in mind always, the wish to make something beautiful or smart looks slight and vain in comparison. If people read your work and, as a result, choose life, then you are doing your job.

“I didn’t write my books for posterity (not that posterity would have cared): I wrote them for myself. Which doesn’t mean I didn’t hunger for readers and fame. I never could have endured so much hard, solitary labor without the prospect of an audience. But this graveyard of dead books doesn’t unnerve me. It reminds me that I had a deeper motive, one that only the approach of old age and death has unlocked. I wrote to answer questions I had — the motive of all art, whatever its ostensible subject. There were things I urgently needed to know. ” James Atlas

“It’s the simple, inspiring idea that when members of different groups — even groups that historically dislike one another — interact in meaningful ways, trust and compassion bloom naturally as a result, and prejudice falls by the wayside.”

“We need to understand how refugees are different so that we don’t erase the specificity of their experience.”

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